All in a Day's Riding

Having read "Smoky" years ago and adored it, I bought some other James novels. This really explained not only the cowboy way of life, but many of its values and rewards. The drawings are wonderful, as you would expect, and James's style is conversational. A good book for western lovers.

I bought this book for my husband's birthday. He loves Will James' books and sketches. If you are a cowboy or just a cowboy at heart, you will love these books.

This wonderful collection of autobiographical essays and short fiction (not always easy to tell apart) will please any real-cowboy fan, and certainly any Will James fan. In his easy-going cowboy-talk vernacular, James tells it like it is (or in many cases, was), patiently explaining the ins and outs of cowboy life while giving the good parts a bit of a romantic glow and all the rest his dry, even-tempered humor. Writing in the 1930s, fifty years after the cattle drives and open range, James argues that there's still plenty of wide open spaces for old-time cowboying, and while he is aware of the encroachments of 20th century mechanization, he makes a strong case for the old ways, the central role of horses in the cowboy's identity, and the enduring qualities of the cowboy code. The contents of the book are evenly balanced among those three themes. Like he is writing for city-born novices, he patiently explains the many uses of the cowboy's gear: hat, chaps, boots, rope, slicker, and so on. I'm familiar with these subjects, but still I had never read before such a detailed accounting of the makeup and contents of the cowboy's bedroll (gatherings). I've also never read such a careful description of how to eat a meal sitting cross-legged on the ground. There are many stories of horses of all kinds, especially the broncs that were hardest to break. At least a couple of them lay up the author with broken bones. There's a chapter devoted to cattle ("The Critter") and another about trekking with a small herd through a fierce winter blizzard ("On the Drift"). Another chapter gives a month-by-month description of the cowboy's year. James devotes another chapter to the rodeo, at a time before rodeo cowboys were organized into a professional organization that would protect their interests. Writing fiction, James could go for the heartstrings, as in the sentimental story of brother horses, "Tom and Jerry," and the melodramatic account of a young outlaw who mends his ways, "Scattered Tracks." And the entire book is illustrated with James' wonderful illustrations of cowboys, horses, and cattle. Each is dated and range from the early 1920s to the 1930s. Thanks to the Will James Society of Billings, Montana, for keeping the books of this find cowboy writer and illustrator in print.